Rehab is all done, obviously, I am still getting it better, but everything now is just preventative ... I am not 100 percent, I am very close to it.

For Kevin Love, everything looked so promising just nine months ago. He was coming off the best season of his career, with 26.0 points and 13.3 rebounds, and in addition to a second season under coach Rick Adelman, Love had a couple of new veteran teammates—guard Brandon Roy and forward Andrei Kirilenko—to bring experience to the young Minnesota roster.

The previous year, after a 3-7 start, the Timberwolves had gotten themselves over .500 before a knee injury to point guard Ricky Rubio sank the remainder of their season. But Rubio was rehabbing and would be ready to return early in the year. Everything appeared to be lined up.

So Love went out on a limb and made a prediction: For the first time in his NBA career, his Timberwolves would be going to the playoffs.

Well, not quite. Love broke his hand in training camp, and admittedly tried to return too quickly. His season lasted 18 games. Rubio was injured again, Kirilenko missed 18 games and center Nikola Pekovic missed 20. Roy played only five games, and swingman Chase Budinger played only 23. The Timberwolves went 31-51.

Ask Love for a prediction this year, then, and you’re going to get a much more cautious response. “I made a bold prediction that we would have great success and make the playoffs last year, and I ended up getting hurt,” Love told Sporting News. “So I don’t know what I want to do this year as far as that goes. It is the same kind of feel and expectations, if—if and when—we stay healthy, remain healthy throughout the course of the season. We do have to have some luck on our side like any team in our position. I think that if we are healthy and have a great summer, we’re only going to get better.”

Love had surgery on his hand in January, and had arthroscopic surgery on his knee in April. But he is all healed up no, and eager to get next season started. “Rehab is all done, obviously, I am still getting it better, but everything now is just preventative going forward,” Love said. “As far as how I feel, if I am not 100 percent, I am very close to it. Now, I am able to get back on the court and it feels good.”

Love has been keeping busy. In addition to rehab, he was a guest host on the “Mike and Mike” show on ESPN, and has been following the playoffs closely—he has been working with Sprint and will conduct a “Twitter takeover” during Game 4 of the Finals (use #klovetakeover to join in). He’s also been following the Finals using his mobile device. “Whenever I watch I use the NBA Gametime app, I think you just get the best of all worlds,” Love said. “Especially if you’re not around a TV, it is perfect, you can stream it on your phone.”

More important, Love is already focusing on getting the Timberwolves ready for next season. He said he met with new team president Flip Saunders in Minnesota and is preparing to put together a player-run minicamp. Rubio is expected to help lead it, too.

“Flip and I have been in constant contact since he took over the job,” Love said. “I have actually been out to Minnesota in order to speak with him and contact guys and put together a little training camp (in Los Angeles) in June, through the players. It will be good to see those guys, get together before camp starts on October 1. Flip can’t be there and the coaching staff can’t be there but he has helped facilitate it to let us know what we can do and get the guys together. It should run pretty smoothly.”

As for rumors that Adelman might walk away from the job to take care of his wife, Mary Kay—he took a three-week hiatus last January when she was ill—Love said he, like many, expects Adelman to return. “Obviously, we hope the best for his wife, Mary Kay, and hope she is in great health,” he said. “But I just think by his tone and the way he speaks about the team and what we need going forward, I have a good feeling that he will be coming back as the coach.”

Keeping Adelman will go a long way toward boosting the Timberwolves back into playoff contention, but no factor will be greater than the health of Love himself—he needs to be back in All-Star form if Minnesota is to have a chance to crack the postseason bubble in a tough Western Conference.

To that end, so far, so good. His shooting form (last year, he shot just 35.2 percent, 21.7 percent from the 3-point line) has returned. “It was the shooting before, but the surgery really helped that,” Love said. “Before that it didn’t necessarily feel like my hand especially with so many months pulled back, now it really, really feels good to me. The shooting is back to where it used to be and hopefully it only gets better from here on out.”

Now, about that bold playoff prediction? Not happening. Love said the Timberwolves will be much more subtle this time around. “Kind of low-key, fly under the radar and then we show up on the court for the first game, people will say, ‘Wow, they put in some work,’ ” he said.

-- Sean Deveney, Sporting News. This article originally appeared on SportingNews.com